How To Block What Stalks Your Mac

Browse the interwebs on your Mac and you’re being tracked to the point of being stalked by Google, by Amazon, by advertisers, and by many others who have an economic interest in compiling a secret profile about your online habits.

Uh huh. That’s right. You’re being tracked while you browse Amazon and that tracking data is exchanged with other advertisers who pelt you with ads for items you may have viewed or even purchased during recent browsing sessions. Here are a few ways to block the trackers that stalk you.

Block On? Right On!

While we were not paying attention; while we were enjoying the act of surfing the information superhighway for news, sports, information, and entertainment, advertisers and their ilk have been using sophisticated tracking methodology to stalk us, collect our whereabouts, and build a portfolio that describes who we are, where we live, where we browse, what we buy and when. All that data is collected, massaged, filtered, bought and sold to create profiles.

Who does that? Google, Amazon, online advertisers, publishers, and dozens of data companies that mine the interwebs to collect personal data that gets shopped and combined with other entities that do the same thing.

You’re not just being tracked, you’re being stalked. How can you prevent it or block it? Easier said than done, but there are ways to help control some of what is culled by others. This week I came across a free utility, a Safari extension, which controls what are called scripts– usually JavaScript trackers– that advertisers dump onto websites to track your whereabouts. This one is called JS Blocker but there are others.

JS Blocker is similar to other such utilities that block ads and advertisers, tracking agencies, even social media networks that monitor you while you’re online. It can block all scripts on a website from running in your browser, including those annoying popups.

No bad for free, right?

Wait. There’s more. One of my favorite blockers is the free Ghostery, also a browser extension, that blocks all those annoying scripts and trackers, but it gives you a visible list of what it did, what got blocked, but with controls so you can whitelist specific sites.

Ghostery is simple to install, works on Safari, Chrome, Firefox and other browsers, and gives you some granular controls to improve the browsing experience.

Ghostery detects and blocks almost– almost– every tracking technology. What you get in exchange for free are website pages that load much faster, far less page clutter so easier reading, and information about you isn’t collected so it isn’t shared with other online stalkers.

Some website pages are 2 to 6 megabytes and more in size. With advertising built in and with all the trackers associated to the page you view. Block all that tracking and page sizes are easily 1/10th the original size, therefore, load up in your browser much faster, with less clutter.

Late in 2015 Mac360 and a number of associated websites began a purge of trackers. Use JS Blocker, Ad Block Plus, or Ghostery on your Mac browser and you won’t find any trackers. We have advertisers, yes– and they’re relevant to Apple’s customers– but no trackers, no scripts, no tracking analytics, and no cookies. That’s why Mac360’s pages load so quickly. We consider this a win-win-win. Readers win with faster website page loads, less visual clutter (we limit to a single display ad, and a few text link ads per page), and less bandwidth consumed, and more privacy– no tracking. Advertisers get less competitive visual clutter and targeted advertisements for targeted readers. And we’re happy if everyone else is happy.

You can be happy, too, if you install one of the ad blockers or use a browser like the new Opera or Brave, both part of a new generation of browsers; the latter offers a built-in and free VPN (virtual private network) and both offer advertiser and tracker blockers. Not bad for free, huh?

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About Jeffrey Mincey

As a Mac, Windows, and Linux system administrator in Atlanta, Georgia, I've used Macs for almost 30 years (mostly late at night). Read more of my articles here. Check out my Mac tips, tricks, and app reviews at Bohemian Boomer.

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